7 Predictions on How NFV and SDN Will Mature

Moving Beyond Trials

Tier-1 telcos will likely be the first to move beyond trials. Tier-1s such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and NTT are generally the most active in the industry and among the first to adopt new technologies. Since they have the most resources at their disposal, we can expect them to set the example for the industry as the first to move beyond the PoC and trial stages. By setting an example, they will support the smaller tier-2 telcos by providing lessons-learned from their rollout.

According to many industry analysts and influencers, software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are the technology game changers in 2015, especially within the telecommunications industry. Why?

According to estimates by research firm Gartner, global IP traffic has increased by a factor of five over the past five years, and will continue to increase threefold over the next five years. However, telecoms services revenues fell by 1.2 percent in 2013 to $1.62 trillion, and grew less than 1 percent in 2014. Thanks to the growth of the Internet of Things, an increasing number of devices and applications are connecting to the network, forcing telcos to find new ways for the network to cope. This has created a need to make networks more flexible and programmable to support this increasing need for data and bandwidth. But questions remain: Are these technologies still in their infancy, or will they become the de facto network architecture by the end of 2015, as some claim? How far and how fast will these technologies really have evolved by December?

In this slideshow, Ali Kafel, senior director and head of telecom business development for Stratus Technologies, offers seven predictions for how NFV and SDN will mature by the end of 2015.

Cost reduction has been the main driver of IIoT adoption. Other contributors are the emergence of ancillary and complementary technologies, including low-power hardware devices, the cloud, Big Data analytics, robotics and automation and smart sensors. ... More >>